► Peasant and rural society is a new focus of medieval Islamic archaeology in Jordan. New surveys and excavations conducted on geographically and historically distinct regions…
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▼ Peasant and rural society is a new focus of medieval Islamic archaeology in Jordan. New surveys and excavations conducted on geographically and historically distinct regions of Jordan consider state-level agricultural investment but are also interested in documenting rural life and land use in medieval Jordan. This new research is relevant to the discourse on medieval Political Ecology of Jordan because of its focus on state investment in intensive land use, including irrigation and diversion of local agricultural economies from subsistence crops to cash crops and the effects that state agriculture had on peasantry and the environment. Archaeology offers a deep-time perspective on these issues. In this dissertation, I use phytoliths to understand agricultural practices of Medieval Jerash, Hisban (Mediterranean vegetation zone), Shuqayra al-Gharbiyya, Tawahin as-Sukkar, Khirbet as-Sheikh Isa, and Beidha (semi-arid region of the Jordan Valley) to offer new insights into state agricultural policies in relation to ecological and environmental history. My results show that control of irrigable land by subsistence farmers gave them resilience and contributed to sustainable farming. However, state-managed agricultural systems expropriated irrigable land, emphasizing production of cash crops for state revenue, thus reducing sustainability and putting pressure on the landscape. Sugarcane production replaced cereal cultivation and led to wood fuel burning, which in turn resulted in landscape erosion. Phytoliths from Beidha indicate that intensive agricultural production extended to marginal areas with the use of irrigation, thus creating greater human impact on sensitive environments.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rosen, Arlene Miller (advisor), Ali, Kamran (committee member), Rodriguez-Alegria, Enrique (committee member), Walker, Bethany (committee member).

► During the 21st century global change and deforestation have increased fires in the Amazon. Protection of rainforests and sustainable land-use practices in the Neotropics are…
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▼ During the 21st century global change and deforestation have increased fires in the Amazon. Protection of rainforests and sustainable land-use practices in the Neotropics are critical for preserving biodiversity and buffering for climate. To make informed policy decisions it is necessary to understand how natural and anthropogenic disturbance shaped modern Neotropical ecosystems. Long-term paleoecological records can aid in understanding the susceptibility and resiliency of Amazonia ecosystems to modern disturbance. The purpose of this research is to reconstruct fire, vegetation, and soil geochemistry histories from Neotropical ecosystems to advance the understanding of long-term ecological variability on subcentennial to multimillennial temporal scales and local-to-regional spatial scales. Three primary research aims are addressed: (1) provide subcentennial resolution of ecological change and natural disturbances at control sites in savanna and rainforests ecosystems, (2) evaluate the climate-fire relationship on local-to-regional scales, and (3) synthesize existing pollen data from the Amazon basin to identify potential ecosystem thresholds in the past. Results from this study indicate edaphic/climatic controls drove cerr�do savanna fire and vegetation histories for the past 15,000 years, fire activity exhibited similar patterns on local and regional scale, and regional scale vegetation change was associated with periods of increased climatic variability since the last Glacial period, the last 21,000 years. The combined pressures of climate and human activities over the past 1,500 years have resulted in the highest levels of regional vegetation change. Increased ecosystem variability, a result of both human and natural drivers, in recent times suggests greater ecological instability and lowered buffering capacity of tropical ecosystem. These data can inform adaptive management policy to preserve diversity across a range of ecosystems in the Neotropical South America.

► Although plant remains, such as opal phytolith and charcoal analyses, have been used since the beginning of the 20th century to reconstruct past environments by…
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▼ Although plant remains, such as opal phytolith and charcoal analyses, have been used
since the beginning of the 20th century to reconstruct past environments by ecologists
and botanists, only recently have these techniques been considered by archaeologists in
understanding the past at the site level. This study employs opal phytolith analysis with
charcoal analysis to determine both the plant community composition and the possible
use of tree species by humans at the site of Devil’s Kitchen (Southern Oregon coast)
across the time interval of ca. 11,600 to 1,900 Radiocarbon Years Before Present
(RCYBP). A total of 44 phytolith sample slides and 73 charcoal samples were analyzed
from 5 lithostratigraphic units representing different depositional environments
reflecting the site's distance from the ocean and elevation above sea level. This is due
to the dynamic nature of landforms on the Oregon Coast, which since the last glacial
maximum, have been influenced by sea level rise, tectonic uplift, and coseismic
subduction. This dynamic landscape is confirmed by the botanical evidence. Charcoal
macro-remains from the oldest sediments (10,638 ± 35 to 11,698± 38 RCYBP) indicate a
forest of Douglas-fir and western hemlock. Phytolith evidence from later sediments
(4,274± 26 to 1,901± 28 RCYBP) shows first, a mixture of saltwater inundation tolerant
saltgrass and non-inundatuion tolerant fescues, followed by a period of time when only
saltgrass is present. The site then returns to a mixture of saltgrass and fescue (ca. 2101±
23 RCYBP), until the site is buried by sand dunes.This updated perspective on the plant
species surrounding the site through time provides important information on habitat
and resources, and will assist archaeologists in interpreting other aspects of the
archaeological record by placing artifacts in the environmental contexts in which they
were used.
Advisors/Committee Members: Minc, Leah (advisor), Davis, Loren (committee member).

► Written sources tell us the pepper species of Piper nigrum and Piper longum played a significant role in ancient Roman cuisine, however, physical evidence of…
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▼ Written sources tell us the pepper species of Piper nigrum and Piper longum played a significant role in ancient Roman cuisine, however, physical evidence of their culinary use in the form of macrobotanical remains is rare. Phytoliths, due to their possible taxonomic significance and survivability, could be used to understand Roman culinary applications of pepper in contexts where the preservation of macrobotanical remains is poor. To gauge their usefulness in the study of pepper, phytoliths were isolated from modern botanical samples of white pepper (Piper nigrum), black pepper (Piper nigrum), and long pepper (Piper longum). Phytoliths were found to be absent in samples of white pepper, but keystone morphologies of the oblong psilate and polyhedral irregulate types were found in long and black pepper respectively. These keystone morphologies indicate that phytoliths could possibly be used to identify these forms of pepper in certain Roman archaeological contexts. In addition to morphological research an experiment was undertaken that found that ground forms of all varieties of pepper and all preparations of long pepper were susceptible to mold in a climate of varying temperature and humidity.

McDuff, E. (2019). The Potentiality of Phytoliths in the Study of Roman Spices: An Investigation into the Nature of Phytoliths in Piper nigrum and Piper longum. (Thesis). Brandeis University. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10192/36559

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

McDuff, Evan. “The Potentiality of Phytoliths in the Study of Roman Spices: An Investigation into the Nature of Phytoliths in Piper nigrum and Piper longum.” 2019. Thesis, Brandeis University. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/10192/36559.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

McDuff, Evan. “The Potentiality of Phytoliths in the Study of Roman Spices: An Investigation into the Nature of Phytoliths in Piper nigrum and Piper longum.” 2019. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

McDuff E. The Potentiality of Phytoliths in the Study of Roman Spices: An Investigation into the Nature of Phytoliths in Piper nigrum and Piper longum. [Internet] [Thesis]. Brandeis University; 2019. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10192/36559.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

McDuff E. The Potentiality of Phytoliths in the Study of Roman Spices: An Investigation into the Nature of Phytoliths in Piper nigrum and Piper longum. [Thesis]. Brandeis University; 2019. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10192/36559

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

► The mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO, 17–14.75 Ma) is one of Earth’s most recent, prolonged global warming events that is thought to have promoted ecological change…
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▼ The mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO, 17–14.75 Ma) is one of Earth’s most recent, prolonged global warming events that is thought to have promoted ecological change across the globe. Although there is general agreement about the timing of broad-scale ecosystem changes associated with the MMCO, specific details of its influence on local paleo-communities remain obscure, as no studies have been able to characterize plant and animal responses in the context of long-term, local climate. However, new radiometric dates for the Railroad Canyon section (RCS; 22.9–15.2 Ma) of Idaho firmly establish this region as a critical field area for testing hypotheses about the biotic consequences of long-term global warming during the early–middle Miocene. The RCS is an exceptionally important sequence of rocks preserving a nearly-continuous record of animals and plants that inhabited the Northern Rocky Mountain, USA, during pre- and peak-MMCO times. Results from stable carbon and oxygen isotopes from fossilized mammalian-herbivore tooth enamel establish that local climate was consistently warm and dry through the early–middle Miocene, clearly decoupled from global climate change. Phytolith (plant silica) data indicate that the RCS was a mosaic of C3-grass dominated, open habitats and woodland patches during the early–middle Miocene, which pushes back the timing of when open-habitats spread in this region by approximately five million years. And lastly, stable carbon isotopes from tooth enamel indicate that horses and rhinos inhabiting the RCS consistently fed on C3 vegetation leading into the MMCO. Ultimately, these data have, for the first time, allowed us to develop a comprehensive picture of climate and ecosystem change in a single basin leading into the MMCO. These results highlight how crucial it is to study many different regions to gain a full understanding of the local impacts of climate change in deep time. Specifically, data from the RCS provide insight into the response of a high-elevation site located in the continental interior to global warming during the MMCO. Given that inland, high-elevation sites are generally under-represented in the fossil record, the RCS is an important field area that has the potential to provide a unique perspective on the climate, ecology, and evolution of ecosystems during the early–middle Miocene.
Advisors/Committee Members: Stromberg, Caroline A (advisor).

► Archaeobotanical evidences for the presence of wild plants at Fremont archaeological sites are numerous. However, little can be positively argued for why those plants are…
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▼ Archaeobotanical evidences for the presence of wild plants at Fremont archaeological sites are numerous. However, little can be positively argued for why those plants are present, if they were used by site inhabitants, and how they were used. Additionally, there are likely several wild plants that were used but that do not appear in the archaeobotanical record as pollen or macrobotanicals, the two most commonly identified plant remains. I argue that it is possible to provide better interpretations for how and why the Fremont used plants by researching how their historic counterparts, the Goshute, Shoshone, Ute, and Southern Paiute, used the same plants that are identified at prehistoric sites. I further argue that a phytolith typology for Fremont archaeology can provide more insight into prehistoric plant use. I demonstrate its utility through a phytolith analysis of ground stone tools from Wolf Village, a Fremont site in Utah County.

Intertropical african herbaceous biomes are expected to face drastic changes in a near future. However Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) simulate their modern boundaries with poor accuracy, especially at the regional scale. DGVMs fail to consider the diversity of their C4 grass cover. Efforts are thus needed to characterize this floristic and physiognomic diversity in a way that can be used for enhancing DGVMs simulations, and enabling model/data (phytoliths) comparisons. For that purpose, physiognomic traits of dominant C4 grass species settled in Senegal and South Africa were listed. Four grass physiognomic groups were statistically identified. The abundance of four of them significantly varied with biome distributions and regional precipitation. Two grass physiognomic groups were additionally strongly correlated with leaf area index (LAI) and grass biomass. In Senegal, those two groups were also well traced by the Iph phytolith index which is a tropical grass cover proxy. In South Africa the limited set of phytolith data did not allow to observe the full savanna/steppe transition. The two physiognomic groups finally fulfilled the criteria required for creating Plant Functional Types (PFTs). Those new PFTs, parameterized in the LPJ-GUESS DGVM, enhanced the simulation of modern herbaceous biomes distribution in Senegal and South Africa. Simulations…

► The utility of dental calculus as a proxy for diet and mouth use is explored for the Middle Holocene Cis-Baikal region of Central Siberia based…
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▼ The utility of dental calculus as a proxy for diet and mouth use is explored for the Middle Holocene Cis-Baikal region of Central Siberia based on two methods: a macroscopic analysis of severity and a microscopic analysis of particles within deposits. The study area was inhabited by two culturally and biologically distinct cultures, the Early Neolithic (EN) Kitoi culture (8,000 to 7,000/6,800 cal B.P.) and the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age (LN-EBA) Isakovo-Serovo-Glaskovo (ISG) cultural complex (6,000/5,800 to 4,000 cal B.P.), separated by a period of cultural transition marked by a cessation in formal cemetery use. Data were collected from four cemetery sites, two dating to the EN and two dating to the LN-EBA. Nonparametric testing of calculus severity revealed that, for adult males and juveniles, lakeshore populations displayed greater affinity to each other than to their contemporaneous cultural counterpart populations living along riverine systems in the Angara River Valley. Trends within the EN cemetery Shamanka II contrasted to the other cemetery populations, with noticeably larger deposits in anterior quadrants and significant sexual distinctions. The proportion of protein to carbohydrates consumed is known to influence calculus formation, but both cultural groups lived on a diet based predominately on meat sources so dietary ratios alone do not adequately explain the differences distinguished. A complex multifactorial model involving microregional differences in resources/environment, foraging patterns, individual variation, and dental wear patterns provides at least a partial explanation for the results observed. A wide range of particles were recovered during the microscopic analysis of calculus, albeit in low concentrations. The low starch grain counts were consistent with a diet based predominately on meats but still provide some of the first direct evidence for plant consumption in the Cis-Baikal, including possible plant processing by cooking or grinding based on damage evident on the grains. Other particles recovered may provide evidence of mouth use activities or palaeoenvironmental influences. Together, the two components of this analysis offer strong evidence that dental calculus is a useful tool for reconstructing hunter-gatherer lifeways but also highlight the limitations of conducting this type of research on previously excavated and potentially contaminated material.
Advisors/Committee Members: Lieverse, Angela R., Robertson, Elizabeth C., Walker, Ernest G., Stuart, Glenn S..

Clarke, M. (2015). Dental Calculus: Combining Current Methods in the Study of Diet and Mouth Use Activities Among Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Hunter-Gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia. (Thesis). University of Saskatchewan. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-06-2161

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Clarke, Megan. “Dental Calculus: Combining Current Methods in the Study of Diet and Mouth Use Activities Among Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Hunter-Gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia.” 2015. Thesis, University of Saskatchewan. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-06-2161.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Clarke, Megan. “Dental Calculus: Combining Current Methods in the Study of Diet and Mouth Use Activities Among Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Hunter-Gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia.” 2015. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Vancouver:

Clarke M. Dental Calculus: Combining Current Methods in the Study of Diet and Mouth Use Activities Among Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Hunter-Gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia. [Internet] [Thesis]. University of Saskatchewan; 2015. [cited 2019 Sep 15].
Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-06-2161.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Clarke M. Dental Calculus: Combining Current Methods in the Study of Diet and Mouth Use Activities Among Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Hunter-Gatherers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia. [Thesis]. University of Saskatchewan; 2015. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-06-2161

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Universitat de Barcelona

9.
Esteban Alamá, Irene.
Reconstructing past vegetation and modern human foraging strategies on the south coast of South Africa.

Esteban Alamá, I. (2016). Reconstructing past vegetation and modern human foraging strategies on the south coast of South Africa. (Thesis). Universitat de Barcelona. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10803/401426

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Esteban Alamá, Irene. “Reconstructing past vegetation and modern human foraging strategies on the south coast of South Africa.” 2016. Thesis, Universitat de Barcelona. Accessed September 15, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/10803/401426.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Esteban Alamá, Irene. “Reconstructing past vegetation and modern human foraging strategies on the south coast of South Africa.” 2016. Web. 15 Sep 2019.

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Esteban Alamá I. Reconstructing past vegetation and modern human foraging strategies on the south coast of South Africa. [Thesis]. Universitat de Barcelona; 2016. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10803/401426

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation